Today my friend flew down from Tucson to bring her airplane in for its well-flyer check. We had an opportunity to have a meal at the Bisbee Breakfast Club which is always a treat. She was pressed for time so rather than drive back to Tucson and then go to the market she decided to stop in our local co-op, which is just up the street from the resturant. In busy lives it is all about time management. The displays are very visual in our local co-op. It is one way that you know you are in an arts community. I had lots of fun with the phd camera (push here dummy)which I am carrying everywhere I go these days.

Art is in the living. If you live in Bisbee you get it.

Chiricahua Rock House

While browsing through some other people's posts on flickr I got inspired to work on some shots that I thought might look good in B&W, for which I must say I have a real fondness. Many people who know me and comment on my work often are drawn to color. Color can be too easy if you ask me. It is easy to wow the viewer with highly saturated color and here in the southwest we have a big edge. The landscape is so vibrant that you don't need to resort to post processing tricks to get the blue skies and rich earth tones. It is all there for the photographer.

Black and white on the other hand IMHO relies on subject matter, composition and the ability of the photographer to capture the vision that motivated the photographer into making the shot.

A flip of perspective

Sometimes I have to look at a photo a bit before I can see what is needed to make it a more dynamic shot. Sometimes all the looking in the world won't help. I think this is an improvement.

Snowy morining

Arizona does not do snow well. Most of southern Arizona is covered in a blanket of snow and there is a heavy snow warning for Cochise County until 5 PM today. I woke up to about 6 inches of the cold white stuff, road closures and workers that are in varing degrees of not able to get the usual workday to happen. The town is generally shut down at this moment. The city services only the main street and other than that you are on your own. The roads are begining to clear a bit but I hope to continue to see this storm from the inside looking out.

I am no snow fan but it does make for interesting photos. There is always the challenge of exposure that will keep the snow white without blowing out the highlights. I don't see enough snow to be a good hand at is, but I keep trying.

In my world at this moment in real time

So it is snowing again. It looks like the this El Nino year is going to continue with winter snows. We get a good portion of our moisture in winter rain and snow. I would put my money on rain everytime but climate is what you hope for and weather is what you get.

Just the image

So the point for me is the image. Is it something that grabs the viewer? Does it say something about my vision? Is it pleasing from a strictly visual point of view? Have I done the best I can with the image I captured?.

The things that grab me are not always explicable, and I find black and white to be the best way to strip an image of what distracts the viewer from the detail I want to show. Things that are not always as they seem. After all in life that is one of the basic precepts. Things are not always as they seem.

Snow in Arizona

The powers that be knew that I would not be too fond of snow, which is why I was born in Arizona. Even into the most desert of climates a little snow must fall. With the drought that we have had over the last few years there has not been much snowfall to speak of. We got about 3 inches overnight, most of which melted but it can be pretty to look at here anf there.

A new year

As usual I spent the holidays in Mexico. Now that is the way to do Christmas in my opinion. Kids don't have the gimmies, family doesn't have to have arguments and one can really enjoy the season. We - my family and friends camp out on a streach of undeveloped beach just north of Bahia de Kino in the state of Sonora. There is nothing there, and I mean nothing. No tables or porta-potties, no water and not much of a road, but it is beautiful. I miss the sound of the waves when I get home from this adventure.

We have a traditional Christmas dinner of turkey and stuffing which we roast in a pit in the ground It was very quiet this year and only 5 people for dinner which meant that we actually sat down to the table to eat. Some years we have had as many as 35 people for dinner and wiped out two big turkeys right down to the bones. Several other folks showed up after the holiday - some first timers and some old friends that have often spent the holidays with us on the beach.

This shot is the view from the front of my camp. Rough to have to get up and make coffee looking out on this vista. I want to be back there now.